Microsoft was originally sentenced last August to pay $ 290 million in damages to the company i4i, because Microsoft had used certain technologies protected by patents, Microsoft has finally lost it’s appeal and was ordered to withdraw the sale of its flagship word processor, Word, the United States, by 11 January.
Canadian company i4i argued that the 2003 and 2007 editions of Word violated one of its patents relating to techniques for reading XML documents. Filed in 2007, the complaint was based on an application submitted in 1994 and validated by the U.S. patent office (USPTO) in 1998.
In a brief statement, Microsoft acknowledges receipt of the decision made Tuesday by U.S. justice. “We will soon bring us into compliance with this injunction, which takes effect from January 11, 2010. It applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the United States to or after the date of January 11, 2010, said Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs at the publisher.
Microsoft says it should be able to propose, by January 11, versions of Word and Office redacted component concerned by the patent held by i4i. He adds that beta versions of Word and Office 2010 are not affected.
But ruled out an application with the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of the United States, Microsoft should have to proceed quickly to return copies of Office 2007 involved. Unless the publisher chooses to make a deal with i4i, an option that evokes not officially yet.
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